The Laurel Tavern — Restaurant in Madison

For their weekend specialties, IE: Friday night fish fry and Saturday night prime rib, this place is definitely good. I like the supper club type atmosphere on these nights, getting a salad beforehand, potato options, etc. Some of their other basic appetizer items are just okay. Typical bar items. Have also had burgers here and they are awesome! Got to add fries separately but still relatively good value. If you can keep your drinking bill down that is.

All the bartenders/servers we have had were very good.

My one complaint is the dinner rolls... they are absolutely terrible, every time I've had them. They are so dry and unappetizing! Like how has no one from their staff or kitchen realized this, and yet they just keep sending them out. Get rid of them or get new ones.They suck! And it just seems silly to keep them around, and a waste for everyone. But that's a small thing.

The atmosphere is a little small and crowded, so if you've never been just keep that in mind... but it makes you feel like you are part of something. It just goes with the natural flow and vibe of the place. You don't have to wait a crazy amount of time for a table when they're on a wait, in my opinion. Can always saddle up to the bar! 😉

Plus there is a nice park, a walking path and a lakefront area behind their parking lot which is so beautiful and nice, weather permitting. If you have room afterwards you can always get ice cream next door, too. Nice location.

We call it the spider bar though sometimes, as being close to the lake, they have the craziest spiders underneath...

EDIT: I've been back since and that place is bomb. Absolutely delicious pub food.

Cheap, delicious, greasy pub food. Your cardiologist definitely does not recommend but I can't recommend it enough.

My girlfriend and I got the bacon cheeseburger, the cheese curds, and the buffalo wings. The cheeseburger was a little greasy but in the exact way you expect a pub burger to be. Overall a heavy but filling and delicious meal. The cheese curds are soooooo flavorful and have a nice little crunchy texture from the breading and wonderful, almost starburst-like blast of delicious cheesy flavor inside. Definitely some of the better curds I've had in Madison. The buffalo wings were... a dry rub, I guess? I was expecting the classic wings doused in buffalo sauce but these wings were dry and the buffalo sauce was cooked right into the breading! After I got over my initial expectations, I had to admit that this was a nice twist on the classic buffalo wings. The breading is thick enough to carry a good amount of flavor and chicken tasted good too. These wings also had a satisfying crunch that you could hear from the first bite, yum!

Note on their service: I had a couple modifications to my orders and they got every exactly right. I went around lunchtime so maybe that helped the issues with service that some of the reviews have mentioned but I was...

Came here to try a new place in town and also read good reviews on their fish fry. Enjoyed the atmosphere, it's cozy, dimly lit with the usual sport channels on. Order the fried cod special and I've been to many places for fish fry and this was definitely one of my favorites in Madison. So overall having a nice experience, except the service is terribly the opposite. Our waitress was SO incredibly rude to us. Had a bad attitude the entire time. When it was time to pay, we received an eye roll because we wanted to split the bill among our small group of four. Any normal restaurant that wants to bring customers back would not make a fit about splitting a bill. Left with a displeasing experience and will not go back because of how poorly the service is there. We will find another place that actually...